Exam 4: The Research Enterprise in Psychology Part 2

Darla has sent out a survey in which she is asking people to provide information about their attitudes on a number of sensitive subjects. When the surveys are returned Darla needs to be aware that the responses may be distorted due to

A tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables is called a theory.

A computerized database that allows individuals to locate journal articles and other published works related to psychological research is

The hypotheses for a research study are most likely to be found in the

In an experiment the variable that is varied by the researcher is known as the ____________________ variable and the variable that is measured is known as the ____________________ variable.

Descriptive/correlational research methods broaden the scope of phenomena that psychologists are able to study.

An experimenter tests the hypothesis that physical exercise helps people's mood (makes them happier). Subjects in the experimental group participate on Monday and Tuesday and those in the control group on Wednesday and Thursday. What is the independent variable?

Which of the following is NOT a major source of distortions in self-report in scientific research?

What is the difference between a positive correlation and a negative correlation? List some specific variables that you predict would be positively correlated, and variables that would be negatively correlated, with alcohol consumption by college students.

PsychINFO is a computerized database that contains abstracts, or brief summaries of psychological research studies published in journals and books.

If a college professor surveyed his students about their attitudes concerning the social security system and concluded that young adults doubt that they will ever receive social security benefits, his conclusion would be flawed because

The term "statistical significance" refers to

Scarlett is a graduate student who is observing children playing together after watching a film. She knows that some children saw a film that contained graphic scenes of violence and some children saw a non-violent film, but she doesn't know which film each child she is observing watched. In this case, Scarlett is recording data for

Pretend that you are in a discussion with friends and the topic is hard sciences versus soft sciences. It is argued that psychology is not a true science at all, as are sciences like chemistry and physics. How would you defend the proposition that psychology is a true science?

Imagine that a group of researchers conducted a single-blind study designed to test the effectiveness of subliminal-message weight-loss tapes. Suppose the researchers found that everyone lost weight during the study, even those who were given tapes without any subliminal messages. This type of result would

Which of the following statements concerning anecdotal evidence is false?

One is most likely to encounter problems with the social desirability bias when using

Sometimes a subject's expectations may lead to behavior change in the absence of any effective treatment. This is referred to as an example of

In an experiment the investigator varies the dependent variable and measures the independent variable.

Dr. Stillingsworth is interested in people's reactions to a controversial jury verdict. Dr. Stillingsworth calls people at their home between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon. In this example Dr. Stillingsworth has MOST likely selected